Benchmarks continue weak trade in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in afternoon session on account of profit booking witnessed in some front line blue chip stocks including ITS, SSLT and TCS. Investors’ sentiments were dented as activity in the services sector, which occupies the largest share in the Indian economy continued to contract for fourth time in a row in October. The HSBC services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, stood at 47.1 points in October from 44.6 points in September. Further, weak global cues also added to the pessimistic sentiments. Investor’s sentiments also remained dampen as the FDI inflow into the services sector declined by 47.5 percent to $1.19 billion during April-August. On sector specific, barring realty and auto, all other indices were trading lower on BSE with FMCG, consumer durables and IT down over 1%.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with Hang Seng down by 0.38% amid rising concerns that the US Fed going for a tapering sooner than expected, as more positive economic data from the country were reported on Monday. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,200 and 21,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,025 stocks traded, 905 stocks advanced, while 1,015 stocks declined on the BSE.       

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21,047.74 down by 191.62 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 21,158.56 and 21,000.29. There were only 5 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index up by 0.17%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.08% and Auto up by 0.08%. While, FMCG down by 2.29%, Consumer Durables down by 1.65%, IT down by1.10%, Teck down by 1.09% and Healthcare down by 1.01% were losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.78%, Coal India up by 1.06%, HDFC up by 0.67%, RIL up by 0.45% and Cipla up by 0.43%. On the flip side, ITC down by 3.10%, SSLT down by 2.19%, TCS down by 2.13%, Sun Pharma down by 1.87% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.83% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, industry body Assocham has said that taming the surging inflation holds the key to getting back on the high growth trajectory while improving country’s macroeconomic data. The country's economic growth slowed down drastically to a decade low of 5 percent last fiscal year after recording an average of nearly 8 percent over the last nine fiscals. Meanwhile, the WPI inflation accelerated to 7-month high of 6.46% in the month of September on y-o-y basis as against 6.10% in August and 8.07% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Praising the government's recent efforts to boost country’s infrastructure sector, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said the government would make all efforts to get pass the key financial reforms bills like Insurance and SEBI. The government seeks to raise the FDI cap in insurance sector to 49 percent from 26 percent.

The government expects that economy will grow between 5 to 5.5 percent in the current fiscal on the back of strong agriculture output on the back of better than expected monsoon in current year. Indian macroeconomic data has also started improving with core industrial sector growing at a year high of 8% in September against 3.7% growth in the previous month. Further, the government has also asserted that country’s deficits will be contained in the target limits. The government has set target to contain the CAD at 3.7 percent and fiscal deficit at 4.8 percent of GDP in the current financial year. India's CAD widened to $21.8 billion or 4.9 percent of GDP in the April-June quarter of FY14, while, the country’s fiscal deficit number has touched around 76 percent of the budget estimate in the first half of current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,267.40 down by 49.95 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 6,293.75 and 6,247.55. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 2.38%, NMDC up by 2.09%, Tata Motors up by 1.89%, Indusind Bank up by 1.37% and Asian Paint up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 3.56%, ITC down by 3.21%, TCS down by 2.10%, SSLT down by 2.08% and Ranbaxy down by 2.04% was the major loser on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed;, Shanghai Composite up by 0.06%, Straits Times up by 0.33%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.17%,. While, Seoul Composite down by 0.56%, KLSE Composite down by 0.16%, Hang Seng down by 0.38%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.21% and Taiwan Weighted down by 1.10%.